September 2020 – The Regional Pacific NDC Hub was a partner organization for a series of three webinars on “Accelerating Investments in Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Smart Mobility in the Pacific Islands”.

Public and private companies and funders, regional organizations, and project developers came together to discuss opportunities and barriers to scaling up investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency and smart mobility in Pacific Island Countries.

Mr. Vincent Guinaudeau (Senior Green Investment Specialist, GGGI) represented the Pacific NDC Hub and shared insights on the Hub’s work on NDC investment plans and projects pipelines in Fiji and Kiribati. He discussed examples of energy efficiency projects in the hotel industry and potential for investment in greening the tourism sector.

Mr. Vincent Guinaudeau presented the Pacific NDC Hub’s work in the region on NDC investment plans and projects pipelines.

The numerous challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic on regional and global tourism is unprecedented. Before the hotel industry resumes its operations at full capacity it will have to refurbish sections of its hotels (as hotels do every 6-10 years in the Pacific). This can be a window of opportunity for the industry to invest and transition to a greener business model.

The Pacific NDC Hub also facilitated participation of experts from the energy sector. CEO of Energy Fiji Limited, Mr. Hasmukh Patel presented Fiji’s ambitious targets of achieving 100% renewable energy generation by 2030 to the plenary on renewable energy.

Mr. Hasmukh Patel, CEO of Energy Fiji Limited (EFL) presented Fiji’s ambitions for a renewable energy powered future.

Speakers from across the region and the EU highlighted several barriers to private sector investment, including access to finance, regulatory challenges, a lack of financial guarantees and limited experience in negotiating power purchase agreements (PPA). While Pacific governments and utility providers have set ambitious renewable energy targets and, in some cases, prepared roadmaps to accelerate energy efficiency and sustainable transport, additional technical and financial support instruments adapted to the local context are required to scale up innovative solutions and improve access to reliable electricity, including for the many remote islands and atolls that are currently not fully electrified.

“Private investment will only materialize where the rewards outweigh the risks, and where blended finance, funding schemes, innovative public private partnerships and state of the art technical assistance can find a way to help prepare project pipelines,” said Jean Louis Ville, Acting Director at the European Commission, during his welcoming remarks. During the webinars, the EU Electrification Financing Initiative (ElectriFI) presented its € 8 million Pacific Window, aiming to deal with market barriers and de-risk investments in renewable energy in the region.

Promising and largely untapped opportunities can be found in several niche market segments such as solar home systems, mini grids but also in nascent sectors such as energy efficiency and sustainable transport.

“We believe that in energy efficiency and transport, there are commercially viable options. We want to accelerate the private sector involvement in these sectors. Facilities like ElectriFI can help bridge the access-to-finance gap, which represents one of the main obstacles,” said Martin Garrood, Lead Adviser Energy at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade during the webinars.

Bundling and modularization approaches could provide necessary flexibility and scale to help meet the region’s growing energy demand cost-effectively. Partnerships and regional approaches are now needed to help with aggregation, standardization and scale-up. The webinar series provided a solid platform that the hosts, partners and participants hope would enable future partnerships between players across the Pacific, which, according to Solomone Fifita, manager of PCREEE, is “open for business”.

To get further insight on key-takeaways from the webinar series, read more here.

This series of webinars was made possible through the support of the European Union and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It was organized by the Carbon and Energy Professionals (CEP) and the Pacific Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (PCREEE) with the support of GET.invest, a European programme supported by the European Union, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Austria, and in partnership with ElectriFI, the Regional Pacific NDC Hub, SPC, GGGI and GIZ.

The Regional Pacific NDC Hub is working through the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) to develop NDC investment plans and projects pipelines in Fiji, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Samoa and Tonga. The implementation of these very projects will help countries achieve their Nationally Determined Contribution targets and build long-term resilience to climate change impacts.